rcmodel
Member in memoriam
I built this as a senior HS shop project in 1961-62.
Imagine a kid doing that today!
When I was 6 in 1950, my dad bought a farm when he returned from WWII and got back on his feet.
In the shop attached to a barn was a decrepit old James Constable double-barrel percussion shotgun.
One day when I was about 8, it fell over and whacked him on the head while he was bent over working on a piece of farm machinery.
I learned three things that day.
1. My dad had learned more cuss words in WWII then I could imagine.
2. I didn't know what a lot of them meant.
3. I new A LOT of new cuss words for an 8 year old boy.
Anyway, he got so mad he broke the shotgun in half over the big blacksmith anvil, and threw the pieces out on the scrap iron pile behind the shop. They laid there for a few more years, until one day, I soaked the thing in a can of kerosene until I could get the rusty lock screws out.
I put the remaining good lock, triggers, broken trigger guard, and front sight bead in my “possibles” junk box.
Then in 1961, I needed a HS senior shop class project.
I found a chunk of ¾” hex bar stock in the school iron rack left over from some other kids project in years past, and a bell rang in my head.
I had never seen a real Pirates Pistol, but had read enough books to know about what they looked like.
And that chunk of hex bar stock looked like a barrel for one!!!
My shop teacher gave the go ahead, and I drew up the gun in drafting class using the old shotgun lock, trigger, guard, and hex bar-stock "barrel" as a basis of the design.
I made a deep-hole drill out of a 3/8” drill bit with an extension brazed on it, and bored out the barrel down to where the breach plug threads would need to end.
It was drilled & tapped for a 3/8”x1”x16TPI bolt. Then I faced the barrel off until the bolt head tightened in line with the barrel flats, welded a tang on the bolt, and bent it to match the curve of the stock.
I made the stock from a leftover chunk of walnut I found in the scrap wood pile at school.
The inletting looks like it was done by a rabid beaver, but it got the job done.
Finally, I got a 1/4"x28 nipple from somewhere and drilled & tapped the barrel for the powder drum, tightened to align the nipple with the hammer, and welded it in place.
I proof fired the pistol with a double charge of powder & two balls several times with no ill effects.
Then continued to shoot it occasionally to this day.
It uses a .36 cal patched ball and a .30 Carbine case full of FFFG.
Looking back on it now, a couple of things I overlooked was a slot & ferrule for a ram-rod, and Pirate Pistols were not .36 caliber!
I couldn’t have put a ram-rod in it anyway, because I used a screw to hold the barrel on, and it is right in the way of a ram-rod slot.
And if I had drilled it to a bigger caliber, it probably would have blown up when I double charged it to proof fire it.
Learn something new every day about pirate pistols they didn't tell you in pirate books I guess!!
rc
Imagine a kid doing that today!
When I was 6 in 1950, my dad bought a farm when he returned from WWII and got back on his feet.
In the shop attached to a barn was a decrepit old James Constable double-barrel percussion shotgun.
One day when I was about 8, it fell over and whacked him on the head while he was bent over working on a piece of farm machinery.
I learned three things that day.
1. My dad had learned more cuss words in WWII then I could imagine.
2. I didn't know what a lot of them meant.
3. I new A LOT of new cuss words for an 8 year old boy.
Anyway, he got so mad he broke the shotgun in half over the big blacksmith anvil, and threw the pieces out on the scrap iron pile behind the shop. They laid there for a few more years, until one day, I soaked the thing in a can of kerosene until I could get the rusty lock screws out.
I put the remaining good lock, triggers, broken trigger guard, and front sight bead in my “possibles” junk box.
Then in 1961, I needed a HS senior shop class project.
I found a chunk of ¾” hex bar stock in the school iron rack left over from some other kids project in years past, and a bell rang in my head.
I had never seen a real Pirates Pistol, but had read enough books to know about what they looked like.
And that chunk of hex bar stock looked like a barrel for one!!!
My shop teacher gave the go ahead, and I drew up the gun in drafting class using the old shotgun lock, trigger, guard, and hex bar-stock "barrel" as a basis of the design.
I made a deep-hole drill out of a 3/8” drill bit with an extension brazed on it, and bored out the barrel down to where the breach plug threads would need to end.
It was drilled & tapped for a 3/8”x1”x16TPI bolt. Then I faced the barrel off until the bolt head tightened in line with the barrel flats, welded a tang on the bolt, and bent it to match the curve of the stock.
I made the stock from a leftover chunk of walnut I found in the scrap wood pile at school.
The inletting looks like it was done by a rabid beaver, but it got the job done.
Finally, I got a 1/4"x28 nipple from somewhere and drilled & tapped the barrel for the powder drum, tightened to align the nipple with the hammer, and welded it in place.
I proof fired the pistol with a double charge of powder & two balls several times with no ill effects.
Then continued to shoot it occasionally to this day.
It uses a .36 cal patched ball and a .30 Carbine case full of FFFG.
Looking back on it now, a couple of things I overlooked was a slot & ferrule for a ram-rod, and Pirate Pistols were not .36 caliber!
I couldn’t have put a ram-rod in it anyway, because I used a screw to hold the barrel on, and it is right in the way of a ram-rod slot.
And if I had drilled it to a bigger caliber, it probably would have blown up when I double charged it to proof fire it.
Learn something new every day about pirate pistols they didn't tell you in pirate books I guess!!
rc
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Glad you're still enjoying it, and thanks for letting the rest of us share in the fun.
